Women’s Basketball: UVA defeats Duke, 53-47

The UVA women’s basketball team (10-14, 4-7 ACC) notched a 53-47 victory over Duke (11-12, 3-8 ACC) on Sunday at John Paul Jones Arena.

Junior guard Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.) led the Cavaliers with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard Dominque Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.) scored 14 points. Leaonna Odom and Haley Gorecki scored 13 points apiece for Duke. Virginia shot 35.4 percent (17-of-48) while Duke shot 40.0 percent (20-of-50). Duke held a 33-31 edge in rebounding.

In a first half with five ties and three lead changes, the two teams appropriately traded three pointers in the final 13 seconds of the second quarter, with Jocelyn Willoughby hitting one for UVA and Faith Suggs answering for Duke, to send the Blue Devils into the locker room with a 26-23 lead. Duke pulled out to a 34-29 advantage with 4:21 remaining in the third period, but an and-one by Willoughby started an 8-0 Cavalier run for the sixth lead change of the game.

Duke momentarily retook the lead, 42-41, in the fourth quarter, but Toussaint snapped a 1-of-8 cold-shooting streak for the Cavaliers, putting UVA back into the lead. Toussaint’s bucket was the start of an 8-0 Virginia run with four-straight free throws from Willoughby giving the Cavaliers a 49-42 lead with 2:07 remaining.

The Cavaliers went 10-of-12 from the free throw line in the final period.